


Truce Party

by GretchenSinister



Series: GretchenSinister's Second Blacksand Week [4]
Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: M/M, Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-12
Updated: 2020-03-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:40:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23113348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: This isn’t for Day 4, I’m going to have to do that tomorrow. BAH.Instead, this is because of whentheoceanmetsky and this post.Jack is troubled as he sees how Sandy and Pitch behave around each other in neutral territory.
Relationships: Pitch Black/Sanderson Mansnoozie
Series: GretchenSinister's Second Blacksand Week [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1660444
Kudos: 9
Collections: Blacksand Short Fics





	Truce Party

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 11/14/2013.

Truce parties at North’s were always grand, and, because the truce had never been broken, they became grander every year. The one that was to be held a few days after the Christmas that followed the Easter of Pitch’s defeat and Jack’s initiation as a Guardian promised to be the most spectacular yet, and though Jack was busy bringing snow to the northern hemisphere, he found himself drawn back to the Workshop again and again, marveling at the simultaneous preparations for both Christmas and the party.

“Do you need any help?” he asked North, watching the yetis hew more rooms into the ice. “I bet I could get that done in no time.”

“Jack!” North looked up from his plans to smile at him. “To tell the truth, I did not ask because I thought you had something against the truce party. You never came to it in all the years before.”

Jack landed on the walkway, his expression growing more serious. “For a long time, I didn’t know they were happening. And afterwards…well, it was you hosting. I thought they were something just for the big shots. Spirits with believers. Spirits who had managed to do something.”

“Why did you not ask?”

Jack laughed. “I guess I got out of the habit of asking questions and getting answers. Anyway, if I wasn’t at the party, I wasn’t in a truce with any of the other spirits. That became a factor surprisingly quickly.” He made a face. “No sense of humor.”

“Well, I am glad you are here now. Think the truce party will be good for you. Everyone will be there to have fun.”

* * *

The day of the truce party arrived. Just before the first guests arrived, the other Guardians watched as North put his twin swords onto a block of ice in the center of one of the Workshop’s manufacturing floors, now transformed into a glimmering ballroom adorned with intricate arrangements of various types of evergreen boughs. As soon as North let go of the swords, ice grew up over the weapons until they were sealed in by at least a foot of clear, solid ice on every side. “The truce has begun!” North declared. “The Pole is now a neutral territory.”

“Hope everyone stays late this year,” Bunny said, smiling. “Could use a break from some of them that usually show up.”

“How long does this party last?” Jack asked.

“Technically, till dawn,” North answered.

“But most spirits can’t stay that long,” Tooth said.

“Dawn? But isn’t that…”

“It is exactly eighty-one days from now,” North said. “But, like Tooth said, most spirits do not stay so long. Main part of party is usually over in two weeks or so.”

Jack let out a low whistle. “You don’t mess around, do you? But why does the party last till dawn, anyway? Is it part of whatever magic makes the Pole neutral?”

“Not exactly,” North said. “The neutrality spell could be changed. But dawn is a natural, strong time. The length of the party is really a courtesy to all those who need neutral ground for a variety of reasons.”

Bunny snorts. “Yeah, big variety. You sure the yetis carved out enough spare bedrooms this year, North?”

North only laughed. “I promise I still have your permanent room with many locks against everyone who thinks you are fertility spirit.”

Jack glanced over at Sandy, a somewhat alarmed look on his face. Sandy simply winked at him.

Before he could say anything more, the spirits began to arrive.

* * *

Everything had been going great, in Jack’s expert opinion. In just six hours, Bacchus had had to be commissioned for even more wine, there had been seven indoor snowball fights, Titania had lost Oberon in a poker game and Oberon had won Titania in a mud-wrestling competition (where the mud had come from was still somewhat of a mystery to Jack), Raven, Hugin, and Munin had been jabbering nonstop, The King had agreed to sing with some sirens, and the dancing had been non-stop.

Through it all, spirits had arrived and departed without much notice, save for that from those immediately near the designated entrance, who invariably welcomed the new arrivals and begged the ones leaving to stay. Jack flew by, grinning with manic energy, when the particular person arriving at the moment brought him up short. It was none other than Pitch Black, looking no worse for the wear and dressed to the nines. His black robe flowed in the slightest wind current, and the V of his neckline was cut obscenely low, revealing, Jack was disturbed to notice, a navel piercing filled with a black stud. Over this, he wore a cloak in some dark fur, so black it shone blue where the light hit it. With him, he carried a darkly glittering black staff, topped with a curious curlicue. The spirits greeted him just as enthusiastically as they had everyone else, but Jack rushed off to alert his friends.

“North, Pitch is here.”

North turned from his conversation, adjusting the holly crown he had begun wearing an hour or two ago. “Ah, good!” he said, much to Jack’s surprise. “He stayed away for so long.”

“What? North, shouldn’t we do something? I mean, last Easter—”

“Jack, this is neutral ground now. And he never broke the truce before. Did he look like he was going to try to do that?”

“Well…no,” Jack had to admit.

“So, there you go!” North clapped him on the back. “Will be fine.”

Worrying for North’s sanity, Jack went to get Bunny’s and Tooth’s opinions, which were the same as North’s. “If you’re concerned, why not keep an eye on him?” Tooth asked.

Jack shook his head. Surely someone would see that Pitch shouldn’t be here—of course! Sandy! He flew over to where he had last seen him, at a banquet table, having a conversation he couldn’t follow with a few men and women and a swan wearing a golden necklace.

As he arrived, it seemed his worst suspicions about Pitch were about to be confirmed. He was heading straight for the table where Sandy was sitting, looking intent. Jack was about to intervene when Pitch swept his cloak behind him and sat down in an open chair several seats away from Sandy, swinging one leg elegantly over the other. He rested one arm on the back of the chair, holding the staff he had brought with him loosely in one hand.

He didn’t seem to want to get any closer to Sandy, but he was still facing him and Jack didn’t trust him. Jack took the seat next to Sandy, who was drawn from his conversation by the sudden movement. His only reaction to seeing Pitch was to raise his eyebrows slightly and turn so that he could see him out of the corner of his eye.

Jack felt like screaming. Didn’t anyone realize the seriousness of this? And now the Boogeyman was scowling—oh wait. His expression was clearing. He leaned back in his chair and picked up a random glass of dark red wine from the table and took a sip. All the while, he never took his eyes off Sandy. Jack glared at him, but he didn’t seem to notice.

The longer he looked at Sandy, the more time he took with every sip of wine, tipping his head farther back, revealing more of his long, smooth neck. With the last sip, a drop spilled from his lips and flowed leisurely down that neck and further down still. By the time Pitch had set down the empty glass, and bothered to catch the drop, it had reached the bottom edge of his pectoral muscles. He captured it with his middle finger, brought the digit to his mouth, and made, in Jack’s opinion, way too much of a production of licking it clean. And still he looked at Sandy.

At the moment, in fact, he seemed to have little intention of doing anything else. He licked his lips and leaned forward slightly, a small smile playing about his mouth. His breath grew deeper and his eyes grew heavy-lidded, and every slight gesture was entirely focused on the Sandman. It wasn’t until he absently bit the middle finger of one hand while the others began to lightly—ever so lightly—stroke the glittering staff that Jack’s expression of suspicion gave way to bewildered alarm. If he didn’t know better, he’d say that hostile was the _last_ thing Pitch was feeling towards Sandy right now. But it didn’t make any sense! Jack frowned, Pitch wrapped the tip of his long tongue around the end of his middle finger, and Jack felt his chair jerked backwards.

When he looked down to see what had done that, he saw the ends of dreamsand tendrils rapidly dissolving. Turning towards Sandy, he saw that he was now turned entirely towards Pitch, leaning back in his own chair, one small foot balanced on his other knee, smirk well-established on his face. He moved one arm with an open hand in a “go on” gesture.

“What?” Jack mouthed. From his current location, he could watch both Pitch and Sandy, so he saw Pitch grin with a mouth full of sharp teeth at Sandy’s gesture. He gave the staff of nightmaresand a deliberate, firm stroke, puckered his lips, and with a two-fingered touch, blew a kiss toward Sandy. Sandy reached out and pretended to catch it, then pressed his fingers to the soft skin just below his ear.

Jack suddenly became convinced that both of them had forgotten he was there, and that it might in fact be very dangerous to remind either of them of that fact. He was debating whether it would be possible for him to disappear or if it would be safe to fly away, when Pitch ran his tongue along his teeth, smiled easily, and took a huge bite out of a ripe peach the table had supplied him with, causing juice to run down his wrist and neck. He set the peach down and stood up, raising his hand to his mouth in mock distress. “Oh dear,” he said, stepping toward Sandy, “I’m such a mess.”

Sandy said something with his sand too fast for Jack to see, and then, in an instant, Pitch’s neck was captured in a smooth golden collar of dreamsand, attached to a dreamsand chain that terminated in Sandy’s small hands. Sandy yanked on the chain to get Pitch to move forward, and Jack, no matter how much he told himself later that he had already flown too far away to be sure, knew that the Boogeyman had moaned at such treatment.

“You look a bit shell-shocked, there, Frost,” Bunny commented as Jack alighted next to him and North. “Had a run-in with one of them that used to ask for human sacrifice?”

“I…no…look.” He turned from Bunny to North and back again, a helpless expression on his face. “I was watching Pitch, and then he…and Sandy…but he killed him…and, um, that didn’t seem to be on either of their minds…”

To his further surprise, both Guardians nodded in immediate understanding. “Well, after all this time, they’re for sure going to stay till dawn,” Bunny said, nodding sympathetically at North.

“As long as they either stay in their rooms or stay human-shaped and do not disturb the yetis, that is their right,” North said, shrugging. “Now, Jack, probably ought to explain a few things to you, like how to deal with times when Pitch and Sandy are getting along…"

* * *

It still didn’t seem right, Jack thought, later, that all the other spirits merely nodded and smiled, as if to say, “just like old times”, when a cry of “Sandy!” echoed through the ballroom from some distant room.

But then again, he was feeling quite powerful now, so he supposed he couldn’t complain too much.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments from Tumblr:
> 
> tejoxys reblogged this from gretchensinister and added:  
> This has so many elements I love! At first it reminded me of one of my favorite books, Moominland Midwinter, with the neutral-ground party and all the spirits. And then just… Confused newbie. Old married couple being embarrassing. Hint of dumb eldritch abomination husbands. Too cute!
> 
> whentheoceanmetsky reblogged this from gretchensinister and added:  
> SCREAMS I JUST AND POOR JACK i am grinning so hard rn i think my face is gonna break I JUST I MUST HAVE BEEN CHANNELING JACK BECAUSE I COULD NOT LOOK AWAY AND THE WINE AND THE PEACHA ND SANDY
> 
> AND NORTH JUST as long as they stay in their rooms or stay human
> 
> and the idea that they’d just be banging for 81 days like
> 
> i might be crying its perfect #YOU'RE BOTH AWFUL #I LOVE YOU #NEVER STOP #PITCH YOU GODDAMN PEACOCK
> 
> xxdaimonxx said: thanks god i’m not a man becuase it would be horrible to walk after reading this!!
> 
> lithefider said: I love it when Pitch and Sandy scar little ol’ Jack x3. Ahhhhh. This fic made me picture the bath house in Spirited Away. Loved it!
> 
> bowlingforgerbils said: hahaha oh poor Jack.


End file.
